“When I first met Don, he was so nice and so friendly. Don was such a gentleman. He would open doors for me. He would do everything a girl would want,” says Brenda, who married her husband -- who is 26 years older than her -- six years ago. “The age difference did kind of attract me to him. It seemed kind of fun and exciting.”
But Brenda says Don changed right after their honeymoon. She claims he has become a “madman” and has daily temper tantrums, where she says he will stomp his feet, stick his fingers in his ears and scream like a 3-year-old over absolute nonsense.
“Don tricked me. He was so nice in the beginning and instantly, after we got married, he changed into a whole other person,” the 35-year-old says, saying that she now finds Don “absolutely repulsive” and that she is only staying married for the sake of their two children. “Shortly after we were married, I realized that Don was controlling.”
Brenda also claims that Don is a paper hoarder and slob. “Don would get really upset if I moved his papers or even touched them,” she says. “I constantly clean up after him.”
But Don claims that Brenda hasn’t exactly been honest with him. “After we got married, I found out Brenda had debt that she had never told me about. We started getting calls from banks,” he says. “I felt deceived. I was disappointed.”
Don admits that their constant arguing is eroding their relationship to the point that they don’t even sleep in the same bed. “Things are said that we can’t take back. It gets ugly,” he says.
Brenda claims Don is a bully and she says she is so desperate to fix their relationship, she wrote 63 emails to Dr. Phil in a 5-week period. “If things don’t change with Don, the kids and I will have to leave,” she says.
Watch their story above, and on Thursday’s episode of Dr. Phil, see what may be behind Don’s behavior? And, is he ready to make a change? Check local listings to see where you can watch.
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